HW-noob: best CPU comparison primers?

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Guest

Hi, I am a multiboot-softie, and need help from you harder-ware guys!

I mostly run office type apps, but also some streaming video,
3-d rendering, and software compilation, on both W9x and Linux.
No serious games at all, no home theater.

Rendering and compiles tie up the comp forever,
so I'd like a bit more power.

My upgrade path allows me to swap a P3/866MHz CPU with 384MB,
for a Celeron 1400 MHz and 1 GB ram.

I realize that the immediate implication is the loss of a set of
multimedia-related HW commands (SS2, right?).

I spent hours trawling the web trying to understand the
functional implications, but the more I read, the "confuseder" I get.

Can anyone point me
to a good primer (***theoretical***)
and to a good comparison (***practical***)
so I can understand what if anything I may lose in this upgrade?

TIA!

Filippo
 
I would almost say you will not see any performance ( a little from the extra ram)...save your money and get a P4. They main reason,
imo, is the sse2 technology. Video/audio rendering take full advantage of that...I'm still have a P3 850 that does video rendering
but I wouldn't use it for 3d animation...basically that's all it does....I would consider it a downgrade to move to a celeron/
probably arguments against this...but that's my take on it.
 
Hi, I am a multiboot-softie, and need help from you harder-ware guys!

I mostly run office type apps, but also some streaming video,
3-d rendering, and software compilation, on both W9x and Linux.
No serious games at all, no home theater.

Rendering and compiles tie up the comp forever,
so I'd like a bit more power.

My upgrade path allows me to swap a P3/866MHz CPU with 384MB,
for a Celeron 1400 MHz and 1 GB ram.

I realize that the immediate implication is the loss of a set of
multimedia-related HW commands (SS2, right?).

I spent hours trawling the web trying to understand the
functional implications, but the more I read, the "confuseder" I get.

Can anyone point me
to a good primer (***theoretical***)
and to a good comparison (***practical***)
so I can understand what if anything I may lose in this upgrade?

TIA!

Filippo
Click to expand...

Build another system or get a cheap 2nd hand one and use the best one
to do the jobs and use the other to surf etc :)
PCs have a long way to go before they can do everything at a decent
speed and as soon as they get near the next media will slow them down
;-)



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I mostly run office type apps, but also some streaming video,
3-d rendering, and software compilation, on both W9x and Linux.
No serious games at all, no home theater.

Rendering and compiles tie up the comp forever,
so I'd like a bit more power.

My upgrade path allows me to swap a P3/866MHz CPU with 384MB,
for a Celeron 1400 MHz and 1 GB ram.
Click to expand...

better Celly Tualatin 1,3 & OC till it goes or change a MoBo

get a good MoBo (OC one) for AMD + some DDR400 ram +new PSU
& get a new Duron 1,4GHz & OC-it till it goes (usually more than 2GHz

-- Regards, SPAJKY
& visit site - http://www.spajky.vze.com
Celly-III OC-ed,"Tualatin on BX-Slot1-MoBo!"
E-mail AntiSpam: remove ##
 
Thank you all!

Looks like even a 2nd hand P4 will give me more boom
for little $$ more than I'd spend on a marginal CPU upgrade.

So I'll either add some RAM and wait, or build a new system.

Filippo
 
Hi, I am a multiboot-softie, and need help from you harder-ware guys!

I mostly run office type apps, but also some streaming video,
3-d rendering, and software compilation, on both W9x and Linux.
No serious games at all, no home theater.

Rendering and compiles tie up the comp forever,
so I'd like a bit more power.

My upgrade path allows me to swap a P3/866MHz CPU with 384MB,
for a Celeron 1400 MHz and 1 GB ram.

I realize that the immediate implication is the loss of a set of
multimedia-related HW commands (SS2, right?).
Click to expand...

No, the P3 only supports SSE, not SSE2, so you don't loose that. You
don't have it.

There's no advantage at all to SSE2 for office apps or software
compilation. Little or no advantage for 3-d rendering, and as long as
streaming video runs without penalties (which I assume it does?),
what's the point?

That 1.4 Celeron should be P3 based, socket 370, right?. I assume it
supports SSE too, but I don't know that.

It's only PC100, but I suppose you run on that already?
Actually, technically it should be rather similar to your P3.
A bit slow memorybandwidth for 1.4GHz, but with 256KB L2 cache.

I'm sorry, but I cannot speak from personal experience of these late
P3 Celerons, and in the only benchmark I can remember, 1.2 , 1.3GHz
were pretty close to 1.7, 1.8GHz P4-based Celerons. Whatever that
means. No SSE2 benchmarks though.

Why bother? Rip out the mobo and do a heart & lung transplant. With
AMD parts, it will cost you very little. Bit more riscy and needs
reinstall (which I think that Celeron might possibly do without).

"swap" sounds suspicious, maybe I'm misunderstanding your situation
completely?


ancra
 
"swap" sounds suspicious, maybe I'm misunderstanding your situation
completely?

ancra
Click to expand...

"Swap" would require one of those resocketing thingies, which I found
offered with or without the Celeron. At $200+ the CPU + memory
upgrade I am thinking of looks less and less interesting. Mobo
transplant... maybe even so, as my HDs are fine but already brimming
and would need a boost sooneor or later.

I could instead go for a new system and derate this one into a home
fileserver / firewall (hardened Linux, underclocking, removing all
extra fans, slowing/cooling everything down, removing the elaborate
soundproofing....).

Thanks to all for your input.
 
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